To All Columbia College Students, 

Dean Yatrakis will know if you plagiarize any of your final papers, which you most certainly will. And when you inevitably try to pass someone else’s work off as your own, she will remove you from your precious leadership positions and probably expel you. And then when you try to get a job, she will tell your future employer how dishonest and awful you are.

And by the way happy holidays!

After the jump, an absolutely terrifying email sent to CCers, which we admit is not our own work but that of Dean Yatrakis! It is in quotes demonstrating such!

“To all Columbia College students,

As the semester draws to a close and you are focused on final papers and exams, I write to bring your attention to the matter of academic integrity.

You know, of course, that academic integrity is the cornerstone of any academic community. The Faculty of the Arts of Sciences have published a statement of the meaning of academic integrity to here at Columbia, which reads as follows:

The intellectual venture in which we are all engaged requires of faculty and students alike the highest level of personal and academic integrity. As members of an academic community, each one of us bears the responsibility to participate in scholarly discourse and research in a manner characterized by intellectual honesty and scholarly integrity.

Scholarship, by its very nature, is an iterative process, with ideas and insights building one upon the other. Collaborative scholarship requires the study of other scholars’ work, the free discussion of such work, and the explicit acknowledgement of those ideas in any work that inform our own. This exchange of ideas relies upon a mutual trust that sources, opinions, facts, and insights will be properly noted and carefully credited.

In practical terms, this means that, as students, you must be responsible for the full citations of others’ ideas in all of your research papers and projects; you must be scrupulously honest when taking your examinations; you must always submit your own work and not that of another student, scholar, or internet agent.

Any breach of this intellectual responsibility is a breach of faith with the rest of our academic community. It undermines our shared intellectual culture, and it cannot be tolerated. Students failing to meet these responsibilities should anticipate being asked to leave Columbia.

While Columbia’s policies are clear, some students choose to ignore these rules and submit work that is not their own.  If found responsible of academic dishonesty through the process of Dean’s Discipline, sanctions such as disciplinary probation, suspension or expulsion can be imposed.  In some cases, students found guilty of academic dishonesty have been prevented from taking leadership positions in the student groups in which they are involved.  It is also important to note that disciplinary outcomes become part of a student’s permanent record—so each time these students submit an application form for graduate school, professional school, fellowships, and in some cases a job, the act of dishonesty may be reported.

Remember, it is your responsibility to ensure that the work you submit for your coursework is your work alone, that you receive approval from your instructors to collaborate on work with a classmate, and that references are properly and completely cited.  If you are unsure about any aspect of your work, you should ask your instructor for clarification. 

I refer you to the College Bulletin for more information on plagiarism and the disciplinary process –  http://www.college.columbia.edu/bulletin/universitypolicies.php – and remind you that there are many resources available to you on campus to assist you in ensuring that your work maintains the academic standards that are the hallmark of a Columbia education.  Your advising dean will be able to assist you in identifying the right resource for you.

I wish you well as you conclude your classes and hope that you have a strong finish to the semester and a restful and restorative break.

Sincerely,

Kathryn B Yatrakis

Dean of Academic Affairs”